Citing concerns over migration, the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments delayed finalizing a lease sale that could allow development to occur in a Path of the Pronghorn bottleneck area for the price of $19 an acre.
Jennifer Scoggin, the office’s director, signed a memo ahead of the State Board of Land Commissioners meeting last week stating that the leasing of parcel 194, which is bisected by the New Fork River, drew comments expressing migration concerns.
“Parcel #194 has been removed from the attached Oil and Gas Auction Results List pending a further vetting of the concerns by both the Office of State Lands and Investments (OSLI) and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD),” the memo reads.
The Office of State Lands and Investments intends to develop a plan for parcel 194 by the State Board of Land Commissioners’ Oct. 5 meeting, deputy director Jason Crowder told WyoFile.
“What we would like to do is have a more in-depth conversation about what to do with the Game and Fish Department about that parcel,” Crowder said. “Specifically, about how pronghorn are utilizing it, and is there anything we can do moving forward about that knowing there’s not a migration corridor designated pursuant to the executive order right now.”
The proposed lease of parcel 194 for $19 an acre caused an outcry partly because of a politically influenced delay in protecting the Sublette Pronghorn Migration Corridor, also known as the Path of the Pronghorn. Although known since the beginning of the century, the celebrated antelope travel path has been waiting in the queue to be designated for more than four years. In the meantime, the herd was decimated by this year’s harsh winter.
If the route was already designated, parcel 194 would have been leased with stipulations intended to protect the well-known pronghorn migration, which includes a thread famously spanning from the Green River Basin to Grand Teton National Park.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department Deputy Director Angi Bruce told WyoFile that the goal is to “have a plan in place” for leasing in the undesignated pronghorn migration corridor by the agency’s next lease sale, scheduled to run the first week of November.
Five years ago, the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to offer oil and gas leases in the already designated Red Desert-to-Hoback mule deer migration route caused a similar outcry. That controversy partly sparked Gov. Mark Gordon’s executive order that seeks to protect ungulate migration, said Nick Dobric, the Wilderness Society’s Wyoming conservation manager.
“Sadly, though, we’re in the same situation today because the state has continued to delay recognizing the Path of the Pronghorn,” Dobric said.
Dobric also had concerns about two other state land oil and gas leases in the migration route that were finalized: parcels 196 and 197. Otherwise, he was thankful for the pause in developing parcel 194.
“We appreciate the state delaying approval for the leased bottleneck parcel and hope this decision kickstarts the designation review,” Dobric said.
Game and Fish’s Bruce pointed out that some of the more northerly parcels — including 196 and 197, WyoFile confirmed — already have a migration stipulation because the designated Red Desert-to-Hoback deer corridor cuts through them. In essence, she said, that also affords protections for the pronghorn path.
“It allows us to have that conversation [with the developer],” Bruce said, “so we can evaluate their operation and mitigate any impacts there might be.”
Parcel 194, meanwhile, did not have that deer-related migration stipulation — which explains why it was pulled.
It’s unclear if no development whatsoever is a possible outcome for the parcel, which one neighboring landowner said is home to the “best migration that you could watch.”
Crowder, with the state lands office, said the decision ultimately falls on the State Board of Land Commissioners, composed of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction and the auditor.
“The Board of Land Commissioners does have a fiduciary responsibility, which leads us to leasing these parcels,” Crowder said. “However, they have broad discretion to lease or not lease. So what we want to see is what comes of these conversations with the Game and Fish Department before we make a recommendation to the board.”
Wyoming Outdoor Council staffer Meghan Riley is one person who will be lobbying the agency to close the door on drilling.
“We’re really happy that [parcel 194] wasn’t leased, but ultimately we don’t think there should be more development there,” Riley said. “It kind of feels like playing Russian roulette with this migration corridor: How much development can it take before something breaks?”
The high bid on delayed-for-now parcel 194 came from Kirkwood Oil and Gas.
Steve Degenfelder, a land manager for the Casper-based company, did not respond to interview requests on Monday. Degenfelder’s daughter, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, sits on the Board of Land Commissioners — which will decide the fate of oil and gas drilling within the parcel overlapping a Path of the Pronghorn bottleneck area.
Really? Discussing the problematic result of building something where antelope migrate through?
Have you guys ever owned a cat, and put something foreign in your living room, and realize all they need to do is check it out, be wary for a day or two, and figure out how they can benefit from it?
Antelope will adjust just fine, unless somebody is shooting them with a machine gun if they get too close to whatever development shows up as long as they can just simply walk around it… or find a way to take advantage of it.
During the 2016 run up to the presidential election, there was a determined effort to sell off public lands. That push was shelved because of the tremendous pushback.
However, the lust for public lands are showing in behind the scenes negotiations. The Columbus Peak land exchange in Sheridan County is a bad deal for sportsmen of all stripes, as well as a harbinger of things to come. The existing WY parcel includes a reservoir, as well as land with habitat suitable for large game.
The property being offered is close to Dayton, featuring views of the Bighorn Mountains. The “policy response” of “no net loss” (of WY State Lands), informally given lip service during the end of the last push to sellout public lands seems to have vaporized.
Wyoming has parcels of state lands that have been “abandoned” by local landowners. Why are those parcels allowed to remain
“rent free?”
I certainly hope that Megan Degenfelder will recuse herself from any vote on the issue of Parcel 194 should it come to a vote by the Board of Land Commissioners. Her father’s involvement in the company interested in bidding on the parcel is a clear conflict of interest and an ethical quagmire. The same goes for any other parcels his company may have an interest in developing that may come before this committee. Thank you WyoFile, for this continuing story.
you accusing a public official of something illegal ?
or
you just pushing democratic talking point’s ?
Paul, nepotism is not illegal, but it’s still nepotism, and it stinks, big time.
It’s way past time to designate the migration corridor. Politics need to stop as It appears to be quite a conflict of interest between the head of the Casper company that won the bid on lease 194 and the superintendent of public instruction.
In my opinion oil and gas production and leases have caused so much damage to wildlife it’s not fair to them. Oil and gas companies have ruined the wild places for wildlife all over the country. Sad but true.
Good news, and thanks for keeping on top of this! I do think the Supt. of Public Instruction should recuse herself from voting on parcels for which Kirkwood Oil and Gas is the high bidder as her father’s a land manager for the company.